Saturday, January 22, 2011

TWQ: Unfinished Books

TWQ (the Weekend Question) asks this week about books you haven't been able to finish.

Which books have been so bad or incomphrehensible that you have given up reading it before the end? List as many as you wish.

My answers are:

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffeneggar (intensely disliked every character)
Moby Dick by Herman Melville (a fair start, but bogged down in symbolism)
Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell  (virtually finished but disliked the new writing style)
Hornet's Nest by Patricia Cornwell (awful characters, amateurly written)
Between The Acts by Virginia Woolf (this final novel was a really poor one from this talented writer)

Now it's over to you...

14 comments:

Ciera said...

does skinning though the pages to the end count as not finishing a book? No matter how bad a book is, I usually at least skim to the end. I don't know why, apparently somewhere I learned that you should always finish a book.

Ciera said...

*skimming!

Ciera said...

Fountainhead, by Ayn Ryn?, in high school. Lied my way through the book report and managed to get a C-

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

oh that's easy for me, all those three girl that ate a bug books by steig larsson. ugg.

smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxo

Susan said...

I know there are books that I've not finished, I'm certain there are, but I can't think of any off hand.

I did love The Time Travellers Wife though.

P M Prescott said...

The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice. Ten pages to describe a guy walking down the street. I threw it against the wall.
The Plains of Passage by Jean Auel. Book 5 in Children of the Earth seried. When I started skipping the sex scenes it dawned on me, why are you reading this?
The complete works of Philo Judaeus: pure gobeldy gook.
Leviticus: Only book in the Bible I couldn't get through. Dry law stuff repeated three times.

Unknown said...

I can only say that I read The Fountainhead in junior high school and consider it a minor miracle that I survived it, along with a compulsory class at 7:00 a.m. in Drafting! ; )

SQT said...

Bee beat me to it-- Tried to read "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and absolutely hated it. With a passion.

Never tried "The Fountainhead" but found "Atlas Shrugged" to be just as insufferable. I was stuck with that as my only book on a flight back from Japan. I could have killed the friend who told me I it was life changing. More like a repetitious nightmare.

Fly Girl said...

As a writer and teacher, I'm a stickler for finishing a book, no matter how bad. I just can't not finish a book, I feel like you just might miss a redeeming passage toward the end. Not that this has ever happened. I just suffered through Catcher In The Rye and hated every minute of it.

M. C. Pearson said...

Oh dear. There are too many to name. I agree about Moby Dick. Sheesh!

Since I have a blog alliance that deals with reviewing books, I get about 5 a week. Many are awesome, but there are some of which I read only the first chapter before saying, "NEXT!"

I know many people will really think that I'm a freak, but I couldn't get past the first chapter of Twilight. I did like the movie though...so don't hate me too badly. ;-P

The Curmudgeon said...

Most recently it was a Stephen King novella, "Apt Pupil." Youngest Son gave me a book from his English class recommending that I read "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption." I enjoyed it. I'd enjoyed a book on writing by Mr. King that Younger Daughter had brought home when she was in high school. I thought I might rethink my aversion to Stephen King.

But the next novella in the collection offered me by Youngest Son was "Apt Pupil." I don't think I'll ever get through it. So dark. So mean.

Ellee Seymour said...

It's usually shortage of time for me. I always buy books and never get round to reading them.

I'm surprised to learn that you did't enjoy Patrica Cornwell's books, and The Time Travellers Wife too. Maybe you can make a book of these adventures on your blog.

The Mistress of the Dark said...

Moby Dick...yup yup...I hear you on that..

Anne Rice - Queen Of The Damned. worst book in the series in my opinion.

Jean-Luc Picard said...

Ellee, I used to be a big fan of Patrricia Cornwell, and read all her books. When those two I named came up, I never read another one.